A news report in an economic daily says that only two kilometers of the Melamchi tunnel have been bored in two years. At this rate, many of the residents of Kathmandu in their forties will not live to see the completion of the Melamchi project that is meant to be the solution to Kathmandu’s drinking water problem.

Is the slow pace of drilling by the Chinese company due to its inefficiency or is it a conspiracy to deliberately create trouble for the Chinese company? The project was supposed to come in line by 2014, and god only knows how long it will ultimately take. I hear Chinese companies are just as sluggish when it comes to operating other projects in the country. Certainly this can’t be the case for a country known to have completed gigantic projects such as the 42-km bridge, the Three Gorges Dam and the railway line in Tibet.

The government would do well to look into the matter and see that the locals don’t create any more trouble for the Chinese companies, if this is the case. The government has vowed to mobilise the military if need be, and I think it is time it did so in the case of the Melamchi project.

By: S. Sayami, Kathmandu

Source: The Rising Nepal, August 8, 2011